MINNEAPOLIS—KBS REIT II, Inc. recently agreedto sell 601 Tower at Carlson Center in suburban Minnetonka toArtis REIT for $75 million, according to adocument filed yesterday with the US Securities andExchange Commission. KBS originally purchased the288,458-square-foot property in 2011 for $54 million. Manysignificant office properties in the Twin Cities have changed handsin the past year, and this latest profitable sale underlines againhow attractive investors now find the metro area's officemarket.

According to the 8-K form it filed with theSEC, the Newport Beach, CA-based KBS entered into a purchase andsale agreement on April 28 with Artis US Holdings IILP, the wholly-owned subsidiary of the Canada-based Artis.The 15-story tower sits on about 2.3 acres of land and formsone-half of the two-tower Carlson Center. Theother tower is not part of the sale.

The companies' officials could not comment because the sale hasnot yet closed. But Artis officials did say in a prepared statementthat 601 Tower is now “over 99% occupied, with 40% of the assetleased to credit tenants, including Wells FargoAdvisors, RBC Capital Markets,OneBeacon Services, LLC, and HQ GlobalWorkplaces.”